Spectators are here again and racing must hope there will be no turning back

What a long, strange road it has been that brings us here. Is it really now at an end, or will we turn a corner and find more of it stretching into an indefinite future? Spectators are back in numbers at some of our racecourses from Monday, not quite for the first time since the world turned upside down in March last year, but sustainably, or so we hope.

It takes a fairly seismic news event to break through into racing's bubble and penetrate the consciousness of those who live there. The moment when Covid-19 managed that seemed to coincide with the pre-Cheltenham Festival press conference 15 months ago, an event normally so relaxed as to be positively sleepy, but which was electrified on that occasion by the sudden fear that our biggest week's racing might not actually happen.

The fact that a mere postponement was being discussed shows what now seems a charming optimism. Sure, we'll take a few weeks off and run it in April.